WoW MoP or GW2?

I was a huge WoW head. Started in BC, ended after LK expansion when Ruby Sanctum was released and the "cataclysm" occured. I have no like the direction which they've taken WoW, and don't plan on returning until the storyline at least goes in a direction i'm comfortable with. I understand their reasoning for making the game easier, and more quick paced for people like queuing for dungeons/raids. I couldn't get into the cataclysm story though, and even the lack of new continent content was a huge let down. The game turned into just sitting around Orgrimmar queuing for stuff and nothing else...boring to say the least. Not excited for the Pandas either.

Guild Wars 2 looks amazing, fun, and fresh. However i've heard that the content more revolves around 1-80, and the end game content just isn't done the same as WoW which is a big change for how I play MMOs. I'm more about hardcore raiding and BGs (world vs world being a big selling point for me with GW2)

Personally, I may try GW2 because for 60 bucks the game can only be good at worst. If anything i've heard positive things, but some say it can't be ur only outlet for MMOs cuz of the end game. Otherwise I just buy a 2 monther for WoW and redo the old content every now and then...just to keep me busy till something I can't help myself with comes along again

i am not a raid or group head but I am really enjoying it as a solo player, also no monthly subs with GW2 but you can buy gems to gain more bank space and other things within the game but that is your choice.

Yes there is apparently an end game, but no doubt it will be expanded overtime.

I have GW2 running under Lion on the mac client and on Bootcamp, and i have the same in game graphics issues with the game in both IE: Have to run it on low to medium settings, but it still looks good, it seems the game needs a better graphics card than I have to get all the top settings mine is an ATI Radeon HD 4870.

Only difference I get in Bootcamp is more FPS which switches the fans into make a loud noise mode....

I am playing both games but currently playing WoW more than GW2.

Don't let pandas put you off WoW, the new zones are fantastic. I am not a fan of the pandaren at all as I don't like the running animation but other than that they fit in the game fine. I really didn't enjoy the last expansion but this one seems much better. There are more things than ever to do at max level and plenty before it too.

Both games are very much worth buying, the best thing about GW2 is that you can buy it now, play it to death for two weeks and then put it on the shelf for a few weeks and not feel guilty about it since there is no subscription.

Blizzard did a great job in the new expansion and I highly recommend it.

I would also chime in that the latest WoW expansion is excellent. The new zones are great and the questing is really well done with good storylines. In many ways it is more of the same but it is further refined and polished I guess i would say. I've really been enjoying it.

There is certainly much more than just pandas and you don't need to be a panda to play the new monk class which is very cool. I must say I had mixed feelings about the pandas at first but I've come to like them and made one myself who is a monk.

If you've enjoyed WoW in the past, I think you'd enjoy this new content too.

As for Guild Wars 2, I am very tempted to pick that up myself but concerned I won't have time for both realistically. It looks great but I am pretty heavily invested in my WoW toons and enjoy them. The other issue is I own many other games too which I'd like to find more time for. Running two MMO games would probably be a bit much.

We long ago now reached a point where there is just more great stuff to play than time to play it all really I think. What I am really happy to see is that thanks to Blizzard, Feral and Aspyr in particular this is becoming the case for native Mac games too. I have more fun than time for it but what a wonderful "problem" to have.

I hate even posting this because it comes off sounding fanboy'ish.

But I spent $80 on the digital collectors edition of GW2, because I bought into the hype. And it turns out to be my worst purchase of anything I bought this year.

I wasn't going to go back to WoW , ( i quit for 9 months), then on the eve of the release I picked it up, and have been playing pretty steady since.

My recommendation would be try WoW or nothing at all. GW2 imo is a huge steaming pile, I wish I had my $ back.

Jazwire said:

I hate even posting this because it comes off sounding fanboy'ish.

But I spent $80 on the digital collectors edition of GW2, because I bought into the hype. And it turns out to be my worst purchase of anything I bought this year.

I wasn't going to go back to WoW , ( i quit for 9 months), then on the eve of the release I picked it up, and have been playing pretty steady since.

My recommendation would be try WoW or nothing at all. GW2 imo is a huge steaming pile, I wish I had my $ back.

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If ur referring to not liking the contents of the game, I accept ur opinion. But if it's in regards to the mac client, it's been running poorly so far and they're in the process of tweaking it to make it run better, so don't judge it on the mac beta thing.

Also, you might try watching Twitch.tv streams to see if u wanna play a game. If you don't wanna ruin the story obviously shy away from anything too deep, but it's great for seeing the multiplayer in something. (or if u don't mind small spoilers for quests/etc) Sadly they don't have a demo yet or I would just suggest that.

Jazwire said:

I hate even posting this because it comes off sounding fanboy'ish.

But I spent $80 on the digital collectors edition of GW2, because I bought into the hype. And it turns out to be my worst purchase of anything I bought this year.

I wasn't going to go back to WoW , ( i quit for 9 months), then on the eve of the release I picked it up, and have been playing pretty steady since.

My recommendation would be try WoW or nothing at all. GW2 imo is a huge steaming pile, I wish I had my $ back.

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What don't you like about GW2? I only played it a bit during the early launch phase. It seemed good. I only played through about 8 levels and it was certainly carebear mode. But I would expect that in the early levels. Fighting seemed like button mashing, but again it was carebear for early levels so eventually I was going to win any fight. WoW fights seem more strategic. I know when I mess up and I feel the consequences, including a graveyard run.
But I expect GW2 to become more strategic as I gain levels. I just need the time to play to get there.

Positive Review

Worst purchase of the year? Wow that's harsh. I'll offer the opposing perspective.

I played WoW for years, and stopped shortly after Cataclysm. I'm just too casual of a gamer to have the time to play enough to justify the costs. If you're a teenager or college student, or a single person with minimal commitments, then maybe you can put time into WoW (that's not a knock - a close friend is married with a kid and finds time for it, he's just rare in my circle.)

I have about 12 friends/coworkers who were former WoW players - some have played other MMOs like Star Wars or Rift, some only played WoW. *ALL* of them have thoroughly enjoyed Guild Wars 2. You cannot go into it thinking it's a straight-up WoW clone/replacement. It's a different game. If you blow through it to get to 80 and then expect the game to start... you missed the point. Guild Wars 2 is more like a single player RPG that happens to be massively multiplayer. The graphics are fantastic, the gameplay is fluid and dynamic (actually being able to dodge in battle, etc is really cool), and the multiplayer is cooperative in a way that doesn't commit you to other players (whereas in WoW to help someone out and get credit you had to party with them).

The stories are pretty decent. They're told in an artistic way that you will either like, or you won't. I've primarily played a Norn and I hear their story is the worst, but so far I've liked it. I started a Sylvari but haven't gotten far, and their starting area is pretty cool.

I think the mechanics of the game are close enough to WoW to be familiar, but different enough to be its own game. And of course, Guild Wars was always ultimately about the PvP. I can't speak for it because I've been enjoying the story and the character building, but I'm looking forward to eventually checking out World vs World.

I think WoW has, in a way, distorted what players expect from a "role playing game." A part of the dynamic should be how you build out the character and customize its look & attributes. I have never liked that in WoW there are, depending on the patch level at the time, very specific builds that you *have* to do if you don't want to be considered an idiot. It seems like someone figures out the most efficient way to play a particular class, and everyone does that until it's nerfed in the patch.

In Guild Wars 2, you can build your character out more dynamically without needing to do a very specific build. It's just... less anxiety. Not to mention that the entire concept of "end-game content" is a reason to get you to continue paying the monthly fee. That isn't to say GW2 won't have content updates - they will (it's only been out 2 months) and expansions will come. But PvP or alt character creation is the intent for "end-game." The game is more like Skyrim than it is WoW in that regards - you can finish the story and still have plenty to do just running around the world. Side quests, dynamic events, dungeons, etc.

So I guess for me, being a more casual gamer, I appreciate not feeling the anxiety of "needing" to play to justify the monthly cost, or "needing" to play regularly in order to get into raids so that I can get gear, etc. Again, if you have the time and like to play that style of game, more power to you. I'm not, and I didn't like being forced to choose between perpetually grinding through levels (because leveling got to be such a chore in WoW) or having to take it to "the next level" and commit extra time and energy into the game in order to be any good. Being told that it was mandatory to go watch online videos of how to run a dungeon to know how to do the fight, before I'd ever done it before... sort of killed the immersion/fun of "playing a game." Sounded more like work.

As far as the Mac client goes, I have a 2011 iMac 21.5" and it plays fine on medium settings, native resolution. I was planning on flipping over and testing it on the boot camp partition but ultimately decided that it looked fantastic enough in OSX and wasn't worth the hassle.

Anyway, that's my opinion on Guild Wars 2. Well worth the initial purchase, and something you can casually pick up and play whenever you have time.

They are two completely different games. Obviously they are similar as they are both MMOs but as far as how each game is designed (engine, combat system, movement, questing, etc) they are different from one another.

I played GW1 for a long time and feel like GW2 was a bit of a let down. It is, however, a great game - and the fact that it's B2P is better than WoW's P2P. I played WoW for years as well, and while I haven't tried Mists, Wow is always going to be a great game. I personally think that it is better than GW2 in most aspects.

Play GW2 for a while and give it a try. If you don't like it, resub WoW and try out Mists. That's basically the best answer I could give you - is to try each and decide which you like better.

I haven't played GW2 yet so I can't really comment on it but I've been having a blast with MoP. Honestly I think this is the best expansion they've done. The storylines are great (at least on Ally side, haven't played through Horde yet), the scenery is amazing, great voice acting, etc. I also really like the new talent system, much more flexible and forgiving. You could always wait and resub when they start offering MoP trials, that way you can try it out before paying $40 for it.

I play both actively, though MoP more since like with most people, all my guildies are there and I've wasted so much time with the game that it's hard to just give it up and switch to another when you have hundreds of mounts, pets and achievements and love your character.

Both games are good, WoW is of course showing its age and things that annoy me in WoW like mob tagging, quest items only dropping from 10% of enemies (it's always been somehow logical that only a few orcs have an ear to drop when you need to collect 10 orc ears) are fixed in GW 2.

In GW2 you are encouraged to help other people since by killing a mob you both get the same reward, and even though the quests mostly comprise of the same "collect these stuff from the ground and kill mobs around you", they aren't ever as tedious as those quests in WoW where the quest item droprate is low.

I suggest investing into GW2 even if you play WoW since there are no monthly fees, especially now that there's an officially supported Mac client (even if its Cider), but also give MoP a chance because at least for now it seems a lot more fun and epic than Cataclysm.

After playing WoW for years and years, I tried GW2 (starting with early access on its release).

GW2 is extremely grindy. Yes, WoW can be, but this latest expac has added a lot more "variety" content that you can choose to take part in like the PokeWoW pet battles, expanded dailies at max level, scenarios (like mini-dungeon runs with 3 people instead of 5).

In GW2 it is a fair bit simpler to do specs and combat; switching weapon switches your spec, even mid-fight so that was nice. After getting to level 50-ish and having one dungeon to do at level 30, and then events. Well, meh. Events repeat over and over and over, sometimes taking control of cities/villages where you do crafting, meanng you cant do squat there.

And no mounts in GW2, you run everywhere. Then maybe find a teleport point, which can be taken over by "events" and hostile forces, again making it useless until the event ends. And make sure you have enough coin to use the ports which get more expensive the further away you wish to travel.

So I no longer play GW2, no harm no foul with no sub fees. I may get MoP for WoW as I have an active account, but did not buy the expac yet. And I did all the new Panda stuff during the public beta and so I already seen/done that new content so I am no hurry to do it again.

I look more at gameplay than graphics, and GW2 had some nice pixels, but with no real end-game content, massively grindy crafting systems, a dearth of dungeons (events don't really count since its pretty much chaos button mashing til the thing dies) it just wasn't terribly interesting after a while.

WoW's newest expac has a larger variety of content for non-hardcore gamers and a lot of "stuff" to do far beyond GW2 (esp at Max level aka End Game), but the graphics are not bleeding edge and that puts a lot of people off for some reason (and yet minecraft is insanely popular, go figure).

With no subscription fees you can try GW2 out and not feel guilty about not playing it after a while.

Sayer said:

And no mounts in GW2, you run everywhere.

With no subscription fees you can try GW2 out and not feel guilty about not playing it after a while.

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No mounts I don't mind, WoW used to be walking up to level 40 if im not mistaken...I have a lot of friends that even praise it still. Gotta pay ur dues by walking around up to max level, that's the fun in it. I kinda dig the idea personally, cuz being able to just fly anywhere at 800% speed ruins the game for me, much like queuing for dungeons and raids. Ruins that MMO atmosphere that you get wrapped up in before the game goes casual and then u just sit in the main city all day, IMO.

And subs is a big deal for me. I don't mind paying but Halo is my main game and with Halo 4 coming out in less than a month, i'll likely be spamming that a good portion of the next year. I'd feel guilty if I wasn't playing MoP or missing raids. It'd be nice if it was free though, i'd prolly still be playing WoW a lot. They could prolly dominate the market again, wonder if Blizz is even chatting about the possibility of goin free to play.

eab191 said:

Im looking to either play the new wow mists of pandaria, ive played wow on and off pretty much since release. Ive sunk a lot of days into the game, i loved and thats why i dont know if i should switch. Ive been unsubscribed for almost a year though. Ive heard sales werent what Blizzard expected and i just dont know if its even worth it to come back now. Guild wars 2 is new, it looks good, but after 7-8 years of playing wow its a big change. What is everyone else doing? stick it out with another wow expansion and resub or go with guild wars 2?

also how well does the mac client run and will it run better on bootcamp?
thanks

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You are going to have to decide. WoW has always been compelling, amazing in fact, but it's nearing the end of it's run. GW2 has been excellently done and is just starting. If you are in love with the holy trinity, WoW would be a better choice. If you want a game that (as far as I know), requires less group coordination, then I'd pick GW2, although I'll admit I'm only a beginner with it.

I play both and enjoy both. The best thing about GW2 is there is no subscription. If I don't play for a week it doesn't bother me as it is bought and paid for. Also you don't have to worry as much about progression since it's not like WoW in that aspect. I can play with friends who are 20 levels higher or lower than me without issue.

I've been playing WoW since vanilla. I've only taken a few breaks (mostly during Cata). I have to say that this xpack definitely seems better than Cataclysm so far. I really enjoyed getting my shaman to 90 and have started getting some of my other 85's up as well. The scenarios are kind of fun, the heroic dungeons remind me more of Wrath than Cata and aren't a big time sink. The new zone is great and visually it is a nice change from what we are used to.

The main problem I have is character progression at 90 is "gated". If you want to do LFR, raid, or get some extra mounts, and the best patterns for your professions you HAVE to do a lot of dailies everyday. It feels like a requirement almost. There is a specific faction that you have to grind rep with that unlocks other factions that you "need". It is very tedious and IMO this factions daily quests are some of the worst ever done (and I've been through the SMV, Blades Edge, Magisters, Wrath, and Cata dailies on a lot of different toons). And with the way WoW works (fighting over mobs to get items from quests) and so many people doing these "required" dailies it makes it tough to get them done on high population servers. A lot of people are complaining about this system now because it seems and feels very poor.

Other than that last paragraph I mentioned; I am enjoying the expansion. My wife is even playing again after only playing for a few months in Cataclysm. Neither of us liked Cata very much. We both loved vanilla and TBC and I really enjoyed Wrath. MoP feels a lot better than Cata so far.

There's pretty detailed examples of the advantages of the one or the other.

I will try to give you a short answer:

WoW: Punishing game, focuses in competitivity between players, it takes a LOOOONG time to level. The real fun starts when you get to the top (max level, good gear, good guild). Leveling sucks (or it used to 2-3 years ago when I was addicted to it).

GW2: You level way faster and the process of leveling is fun. I haven't tried the end game dungeons, etc, but in GW2 you enjoy the journey, you help others, you cooperate.

You really feel the difference, WoW needs you to stay the longer and pay every month. GW2 wants to have the most fun possible, even if it takes less time....

Cheers!

A pretty decent gw2 review; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v05SGDsW2z0




A fantastic review; http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-09-18-guild-wars-2-review

"It's not the levelling, it's the taking part that counts. That's what makes Guild Wars 2 great. Almost every aspect of its design serves the individual player and whole community equally, and there's a breezy willingness to put the content ahead of the grind throughout. It's a little lightweight, perhaps; its fantasy world is more picturesque than truly enveloping, and its social and gameplay hooks offer instant gratification over ties that bind. But it's still the most coherent, seamless, social and fun MMO in a long time - and the only one that can call itself truly modern."


And a good article on the social nature in GW2, contra the horrible stuipid barrens-chat and battle.net spewed community of WoW I've always destested; http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/10/05/the-heroic-habits-of-guild-wars-2


My head hurts from the misinformation in this thread.

As someone who had been on WC train since Warcraft 2(1995) and WoW (Beta, summer 2004) I think it's a great game, but the same pattern has followed me throughout it's life.

You have a mix of fun and frustration, mix of compelling exploration and static fedex grinding aas you dwelve towards the end game. Once you get to end game, there is no more questing for you, and you are basically asked to raid for the supreme end gear.
WoW motivates it's players by having carrots-on-a-stick. WoW runs on a subscription model so the developer constantly have to water down the experience and waste players time to make them pay for their subscription for as long as possible. You are being shoehorned into it.

You got the option of Arena and Battlegrounds for PvP, as the world PvP and social interaction is dead in many open world zones. I personally am sick of the outdated boring auto-attack hotkey combat system and will never in my life return to play a MMO which such boring static combat that requires so little skill, but only spamming a specific rotation, as your being fixed and forced into a role.

WoW is static and never changes, it does not encourage playing with your friends as you constantly have restrictions to enjoy the game with others. You outlevel your friends, your not on the same quest progression, your on different server types, you cant agree on factions or your not efficent because your playing a not-so-great-class combination. Maybe you want to be different classes or races that are not allowed to play together. There are tons of these sorts of BS things that take away from it all.

The game is 8 years old so its difficult to be to angry at a game, which was a great achievement when it was released. But I dislike dungeons, I dislike collecting gear and only winning due to having uber items due to stats.




GW2, is different and it does things differently. I love the end game, because I dont have to do stuff like raiding. I think the World Vs World massive PvP has more MMO elements in it than anything I've seen from the EQ-WoW themepark camp, ever. There is some UO and SWG, some sandbox elements in GW2s approach to exploration.

I levelled to lvl 80 by crafting, WvW, collecting materials (give as much as killing monsters) and so on.

I have no problem with GW2 having an ending. The storyline has an actual end. It's not the best ending, but it's better than any of the horrible forced storytelling WoW has dwelved into. The last battle/mission in GW2 is anti-climactic and the mechanics were poor, but it did end decently.


But just because the PvE story content ends, it has some really challenging dungeons. You see a lot of hate for these dungeons and people spewing and whining of no end game, because people get absolutely decimated in these.
GW2 requires so much more of every player. the awareness on your own skill, dodging, being your own healer, knowing how to use traits and spec and getting the right upgrades. you cant just powerlevel through things.

GW2 puts the player in the seat of responsibility and it wants to be a challenge. I hated dungeons in GW2 at first, but then I sopped and learned that I was just not getting it. The learning curve is too harsh, and the game is not forgiving, but they are really tough and satisfying to beat in explorable mode.

GW2 was not designed to be a substitute for life, or something you can waste 12 hours a day playing. obviously. They never said that, and anyone trying to use that as a argument against it, clearly didn't understand that the holy mantle of GW has always been skill > time investment.


Its true what you heard. it dont take that long to get to lvl 80. it still took me close to a 100 hours, just exploring and doing events and crafting, but compared to other games its not that much. But thats a GREAT thing.

Because GW2 is actually not boring. the combat is fresh and exciting and actiony. the game doesnt force you to do anything or playing a specific way. my guild mate levelled from lvl 1 to 80 by just standing in town doing nothing but crafting. if you have the materials and use the awesome crafting discovery system, it gives as much xp as killing mobs.





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At the end of the day I have no ill will towards WoW despite highlighting some of it's problems. It's always been themepark and that has never swung like a MMO to me. The social interaction was belittling, the quests and worlds never changed, and when it did with things like the pre-WOTLK zombie event plauge, people went furious and cried like babies.

I greatly dislike this approach to MMOs. to the idea of a living world, which I think GW2 excels at, with new things always going on and events playing out in different ways at different stages.

GW2 has many problems. many things needs fixing, some things are not explained properbly and many are clueless about the inner workings. But GW2 just launched, and when the child diseases are gone, 1-2 years from now, when the game is stable and we are having the cantha expansion announced, it should be living up to its potential, as the game that showed they could re-do themeparking.

At least until sandbox gaming will become a reality again.

GW2 does things differently, and for that it gets a lot of cred. On the other side of the spectrum you got SWTOR. a highly polished WoW clone.. but like WoW its just boring and more of the same. it doesnt dare anything.

I'll rather take something new with flaws, than old and boring and polished.

I recommend highly that you check GW2 out. You should support innovative games that take risks, particularly when they are this good. A game does not lack end-game´just because it doesnt play on previous games terms. Anet does not care about stats and raids and fluff like WoW does. GW2 has no problem with players putting the game on the shelf after you completed it.

you got the optional end game, and forever pvp and WvW or detailed player run economy as long as you think is fun. you can collect the prestigious armors and legendary weapons. If you dont think those things are fun, stop playing until new content is available.

than it itself is no different from any other game. GW2 gives you an actual satisfying ending though. all good things come to an end. there is no carrot, or BS, because there is no monthly fee deceiving you. I dont got a problem paying a fee, but I got a problem wasting my time.

MacGamerHQ said:

There's pretty detailed examples of the advantages of the one or the other.

I will try to give you a short answer:

WoW: Punishing game, focuses in competitivity between players, it takes a LOOOONG time to level. The real fun starts when you get to the top (max level, good gear, good guild). Leveling sucks (or it used to 2-3 years ago when I was addicted to it).

GW2: You level way faster and the process of leveling is fun. I haven't tried the end game dungeons, etc, but in GW2 you enjoy the journey, you help others, you cooperate.

You really feel the difference, WoW needs you to stay the longer and pay every month. GW2 wants to have the most fun possible, even if it takes less time....

Cheers!

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GW2 wants you to pay too just not in the same way was WoW does. How do you get by as crafter without spending money in the cash shop on bags and bank storage? Great looking armor availble, costs money on the cash shop.

I read the longer post below and while I agree that GW2 is a great game it is still grindy, I don't think the world feels any more alive than any other MMO, especially when I run through Kessex Hills and see the same "dynamic" event taking place for the 12th time.

The combat is OK, but after level 30 or so I was utterly bored with most of the classes I tried because all of my skills and abilities apart from the elite one are unlocked very early. That is a good thing that everything is available but it's bad because I want something new to look forward to rather than just pumping points in to traits. The top tier of skill points spending is very lackluster too with maybe only 1 decent ability out of the 6 or more you can buy.

I don't understand why GW2 even has levelling, all your skills are tied to your weapon, you get levelled down when you go back to old zones, levelled up when you to WvWvW, so why even have levels at all? It seems like the perfect game to just drop the whole level thing and just let you play the character.

If you don't like dungeons/raiding, co-op group play with a tank, healer and damage dealers then GW2 will be a great game for you. If you like those things mentioned then play WoW.

There is a place for both games really, if you are starting out from scratch as a new player then try GW2 first since it's newer and you aren't playing catchup on guys that have been playing for years. If you are a recent player of warcraft and know that you like the game then MoP is well worth going back to.

You come across as condescending to anyone playing WoW, trying to belittle them with comments about being shoe horned in to paying for it and duped by the developers. That's a sad stance to take, not everyone is in that situation, some people pay the fee because they just enjoy the game on a basic level.

luffytubby said:

My head hurts from the misinformation in this thread.

As someone who had been on WC train since Warcraft 2(1995) and WoW (Beta, summer 2004) I think it's a great game, but the same pattern has followed me throughout it's life.

You have a mix of fun and frustration, mix of compelling exploration and static fedex grinding aas you dwelve towards the end game. Once you get to end game, there is no more questing for you, and you are basically asked to raid for the supreme end gear.

Click to expand...

WoW has changed quite a bit and there are loads of things to do at end game besides just raid. As far as raiding, you can be in a raiding guild (hardcore or casual) or you can do LFR. LFR is great for entry-level raiders (honestly its what got me in to raiding). And this expansion I think you could get raid ready with little to no dailies being done. Dungeons > heroic dungeons/world bosses > LFR > normal raiding. You can also do dailies to get rep gear if you want but I don't really think that's necessary this time around.

luffytubby said:

WoW is static and never changes, it does not encourage playing with your friends as you constantly have restrictions to enjoy the game with others. You outlevel your friends, your not on the same quest progression, your on different server types, you cant agree on factions or your not efficent because your playing a not-so-great-class combination. Maybe you want to be different classes or races that are not allowed to play together. There are tons of these sorts of BS things that take away from it all.

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With Real-ID and cross server zones its easier than ever to play with your friends on another server. You invite them to a group and boom, they're on your server. And leveling is insanely easy, if they outlevel you it won't take long to catch up. Yeah it can suck if all your friends are Horde and you're Alliance but you can either still chat through Real ID or you can level a new toon on their faction (it is super easy now).

luffytubby said:

there is no carrot, or BS, because there is no monthly fee deceiving you. I dont got a problem paying a fee, but I got a problem wasting my time.

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And I have a serious question, how is the monthly fee deceiving you?

MacGamerHQ said:

There's pretty detailed examples of the advantages of the one or the other.

I will try to give you a short answer:

WoW: Punishing game, focuses in competitivity between players, it takes a LOOOONG time to level. The real fun starts when you get to the top (max level, good gear, good guild). Leveling sucks (or it used to 2-3 years ago when I was addicted to it).

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Leveling is ridiculously easy (some say its too easy now). Even a brand new player with no heirlooms, RAF or guild perks can level quickly. If you have any (or all 3) of those things you'll be level capped in no time. Plus if you last leveled pre-Cataclysm everything prior to level 60 is brand new. Or you can level strictly through dungeons, or battlegrounds or hell if you want to you can level by gathering (that might be a little slow though).

And I had so much fun leveling from 85 - 90 this time around I almost didn't want to hit 90. I do still have 2 zones I haven't touched at all so I'm looking forward to doing those.

GW2 wants you to pay too just not in the same way was WoW does. How do you get by as crafter without spending money in the cash shop on bags and bank storage? Great looking armor availble, costs money on the cash shop.

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False. Absolutely false. You get by as a crafter by playing the marked, trading and selling at better prices. Some people don't grasp this and instantly goes to blame the cash shop, which is silly and false.

The combat is OK, but after level 30 or so I was utterly bored with most of the classes I tried because all of my skills and abilities apart from the elite one are unlocked very early. That is a good thing that everything is available but it's bad because I want something new to look forward to rather than just pumping points in to traits. The top tier of skill points spending is very lackluster too with maybe only 1 decent ability out of the 6 or more you can buy.

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Sad to see that you think this. I LOVE the finnese of GW2. I love how they worked so many of the skills down to fewer. GW1 had many thousands of skills, and I'll tell you - It's only better.

I prefer it to something like WoW, because while it might feel satisfying in your brain, think about it. You don't utilize that many of your abillities. You just play in your rotation while all your other skills are inferior or near useless they are clogging up the game screen.




When you learn the game, you will see the amazing depth of it. You get to mix two weapon sets as you wants, plus your utility skills and the heal.

Every weapon you bring in is effective a new sub class. A warrior with a greatsword and a rifle is completely different than with a Greatsword or Bow. What you can do through traits or the upgrades is amazing.

My Longbow Warrior is a healer now. I put half my points in offensive damage and bleeding. But I also gave him support, because I went down a trait line that makes shouts heals. Then I equipped three three shouts (fear, buff, debuff shouts) and now they are healing my team. then I equipped runes that makes shouts remove conditions, and suddenly I am a mobile melee healer with ranged AoE, and support.



The thing is : GW2 doesnt try to grab you with new shiny stuff, it rather wants quality. combined with endurance(dodging) which governs your personal visual awareness forcing you to dodge significant attacks from monsters that kill near half your health pool in one hit, you get a very flexible and deep combat system.


They opted for few skills, because you dont use that many. you dont need cloned skills to give you a false impression of having options. You dont use many more skills than the 15-20 in other games, which you get with a GW2 character.

I don't understand why GW2 even has levelling, all your skills are tied to your weapon, you get levelled down when you go back to old zones, levelled up when you to WvWvW, so why even have levels at all? It seems like the perfect game to just drop the whole level thing and just let you play the character.

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Because it doesn't matter. It's just a number. It doesn't mean anything. All it does is putt emphesis on the players, not making it boring. Outside of situations where scaling is wonky (which is a lot unfortunately right now in GW2) you are still extremely powerful when you get scaled down.

You might not be god mode and doing giant pulls in a SM run, but your still very powerful. so there is progression. Ofcourse there is. everyone likes the psychology of seeing numbers rise. This is absurd so slanter it like that because they dont want to ruin the fun for lower levelling players. it doesn't matter. players just still have to play.

But in return it also makes all content accessable. When I became 80 I went back to work on the accomplishment of getting 100% in every zone and with that I had difficult and awesome content in many lower levels zones, that were not easy but challanging enough and rewarding enough to be worthwhile. When I fought a lvl 35-40 dragon I got lvl 80 loot which was awesome.

If you don't like dungeons/raiding, co-op group play with a tank, healer and damage dealers then GW2 will be a great game for you. If you like those things mentioned then play WoW.

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WoW has 8 years of content, though lots of it is outdated and abandoned. I like the dungeons of GW2, but I think they need work and some encounters doesn't make sense. I get they are too hard for most people, but then again, WoW is too easy.
I agree about the raids. Actually though, GW2 has raids. It's just open world raids, not instanced. And I think those raids of GW2 are much closer to what a MMO should strive to be.

You come across as condescending to anyone playing WoW, trying to belittle them with comments about being shoe horned in to paying for it and duped by the developers. That's a sad stance to take, not everyone is in that situation, some people pay the fee because they just enjoy the game on a basic level.

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I think you are being too emotional, and I don't want to be your emotional tampon. Nobody is belittling anyone, but I am saying my opinion, and correcting some of the flawed statements here from people who talk about things they didn't test.

Honestly, you really. really, really. Needs to read up in MMOs in general if you do not think that monthly fees is a stalling mat. These games, not only WoW have always have carrot-on-a-stick foundations to keep players at bay. So it's very much true what I am saying, but nothing wrong with that.

I am just trying to explain you what happens when they design it this way. If you enjoy this and want more of the same, that's great. I am happy for you.

WoW has changed quite a bit and there are loads of things to do at end game besides just raid. As far as raiding, you can be in a raiding guild (hardcore or casual) or you can do LFR. LFR is great for entry-level raiders (honestly its what got me in to raiding). And this expansion I think you could get raid ready with little to no dailies being done. Dungeons > heroic dungeons/world bosses > LFR > normal raiding. You can also do dailies to get rep gear if you want but I don't really think that's necessary this time around.

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I didn't like it from what I played in beta. I saw a video of the pokemon thing, and I'll never go back to that unbalanced PvP mess. WoW was created as a PvE game and thus it's govered by stats. stats > player skill. I don't see the point or satisfaction in playing for "I win uber items".


I always loved the tactical aspect of RPGs. Not the I-play-12-hours-a-day-and-grind-until-I-get-uber-items-and-pwn-everyone. I realize that high level Arena play takes lots of skill, but its not for me. As for the content, no man, it's more of the same.

the quests are fun for a while and then your 90 and its the same thing again and you start regretting it. I love pandas and martial arts though. Dont have problems with that at all. Art looks good, though they could tone down the samwise VO.

With Real-ID and cross server zones its easier than ever to play with your friends on another server. You invite them to a group and boom, they're on your server. And leveling is insanely easy, if they outlevel you it won't take long to catch up. Yeah it can suck if all your friends are Horde and you're Alliance but you can either still chat through Real ID or you can level a new toon on their faction (it is super easy now).

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That's cool, but you know what. A chat box is still not good for encouraging social play.
it's still annoying people who steal your loot, kills, taking your resource nodes, standing in line to do quests, not being on the same quest paths.
thats really the main thing. If my friend is a lvl 15 and I am a lvl 85, it's not that easy man. and its not fun either. its not fun for me because I just one-shot everything.

And I have a serious question, how is the monthly fee deceiving you?

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Well, it wastes your time. Lvling duration is unnecessarily long and worn down to waste players time. As is with the carrot-on-a-stick. Totalbiscuit says this stuff much better than I can.



But as I say, I don't hate, I just disliked how this is the same old game, I disliked their lazy content schedule, that they never tried to do anything with big scale pvp again, and how it just feeds on the narcissistic nature of having to get great loot just to be competitive. I like how top tier loot is easily obtainable in GW2.

I dont want to be forced by doing anything. I rather have less of superior quality.

It's exactly why I don't enjoy call of Duty. It's not that it's a bad shooting game, its just that it's so much fluff with so many guns and constantly annoying things instead of just making fewer maps, fewer guns of much superior quality. They are so busy, like a Michael Bay movie, to shove stuff in your face so you don't notice the absent of high quality or forward progression in your game.


It's true that there are limits to how much you should change your game. After all you might end up ruining something, but on the other hand it's bad to stay idle. World exploration is fun in WoW, but once that is over, it's over. I don't want to do Northrend or Outland again. I played through the game in Cata beta, and it's still the same.


GW2 also has problems. but it merely runs events too often.Hopefully they get much more events in all zones (and new types of events) to reflect a changing world better.


Games are what they are. But please try to embrace GW2 and stop judging it for not being WoW. We see what happens when everyone wants to be WoW and do like WoW - AoC, Warhammer, LoTRO, SWTOR...

I don't understand why GW2 needs to be put down just for being different. WoW is legendary. It's a game that exceeded it's way into culture and nothing will remove it's achievements. The fact that it still has 9-11 million players is unbelievable. I just wish the fans, wouldn't project onto other games that they should do things like WoW or they have no sustainable end-game or viable end game dungeons.


Launch WoW was a crazy mess, remember! It really took 2-3 years before all the kids diseases were gone. 6 months in it was still daily queues. During those days there where still content missing from zones in the 40-50 range. group finder, and summon in stone which preceded them where many years prior, came out a long time after.
game basicially died in some ways when they introduced Honor system and Battlegrounds. It's gotten better, but in Cata I knew that they would never make this thing really good, which is a shame.

eab191 said:

Im looking to either play the new wow mists of pandaria, ive played wow on and off pretty much since release. Ive sunk a lot of days into the game, i loved and thats why i dont know if i should switch. Ive been unsubscribed for almost a year though. Ive heard sales werent what Blizzard expected and i just dont know if its even worth it to come back now. Guild wars 2 is new, it looks good, but after 7-8 years of playing wow its a big change. What is everyone else doing? stick it out with another wow expansion and resub or go with guild wars 2?

also how well does the mac client run and will it run better on bootcamp?
thanks

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I chose GW2 because it's fresh and I am not self-obliged to play every day to justify the monthly subscription to WoW. I am tempted everyday to return to my fire mage though.

They're not MMO's, but lately I've been playing Torchlight 2 and Skyrim again. I didn't bother with MoP, and GW2 wasn't bad, but I just never got into it (full disclosure: I don't know that I put 10 hours into GW2).

A lot has been said about dungeons in GW2 here already, and I agree that they are really chaotic and hard. Also I'm not sure that the boss fights have actual tactics required, it's more about trying to survive. And I found it surprising that you can just run back into the fight through a checkpoint, which seems kinda pointless. I guess I don't "get" the dungeons yet either, but I'm trying to work on it.

As much as GW2 has a social aspect and you're supposed to help everyone around doing quests and stuff, it also feels like a single player game where you see other players (just like Dark Souls for example; you see other players ghosts around you) but it's not like everyone is super friendly and social and parties with you. I'm playing on a full realm, Far Shiverpeaks, but the only place where I've seen chatting are the very first low level areas.

Also they can claim all they want that they don't have the basic 3 roles, but all they're doing is calling the tank "control", healer "support" and damage, well just damage. I'm playing a Guardian and I WANT to tank/protect so that's what I'm doing. Even in WoW all classes can do all these 3 roles at the same time (except taunt enemies maybe), most specs have some form of crowd control and self healing. If you play arena it is all about these 3 roles mixed with every player, not the vanilla style where it really was the Holy Trinity.

It is also pretty much equally grindy as WoW, only difference really being that quest items are guaranteed to drop instead of only from 10% of mobs I'm enjoying both games, but really the amount of hype that GW2 got ("ITS GOING TO REVOLUTIONIZE EVERYTHING!!!1111") is ridiculous. Not having monthly fees though is a serious advantage and a business model that I'd like to see Blizzard doing for their next MMO after WoW.